


Driver's Ed

by rythyme (pugglemuggle)



Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Banter, Car Accidents, Communication, Driving, Everyone Loves Prompto Argentum, Fluff, Friendship, Gen, Learning to Drive, Platonic Relationships, Prompto Argentum-centric, Slight alterations to canon, dumb guys being dumb
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-05
Updated: 2020-02-05
Packaged: 2021-02-28 06:20:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,704
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22569277
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pugglemuggle/pseuds/rythyme
Summary: “Oh, um, actually...” Prompto rubs the back of his neck and hands the keys back to Ignis. “I can’t.”Ignis narrows his eyes. “You can’t, or—”“I can’t,” Prompto says again. “I don't know how to drive.”Ignis stares. Gladio takes off his sunglasses and stares, too. Even Noct pauses by the gas pump, nozzle still poised in his hand, and looks at him.“Well,” Ignis says with a sigh, “We're going to have to change that, aren't we?”(Or, the Chocobros teach Prompto how to drive. Shenanigans and fluff ensue.)
Relationships: Gladiolus Amicitia & Prompto Argentum, Gladiolus Amicitia & Prompto Argentum & Noctis Lucis Caelum & Ignis Scientia, Prompto Argentum & Ignis Scientia, Prompto Argentum & Noctis Lucis Caelum
Comments: 14
Kudos: 106





	Driver's Ed

**Author's Note:**

> *clicks crunchyroll's random button* *starts watching ffxv:brotherhood* *blacks out* So uhhh I've been playing the game for a couple months now and I'm not sure how this fic happened but??? I guess I should publish it? I know it's 20-fuckin-20 but it's never too late to get into FFXV.......right...?
> 
> Completed in honor of my personal fic challenge, "Fourteen First Dates: The February Fourteen Fandom Challenge".

They’re at a rest stop on their first day out of Insomnia when Ignis tries to hand Prompto the keys.

“Oh, um, actually...” Prompto rubs the back of his neck. “I can’t.”

Ignis narrows his eyes. “You can’t, or—”

“I can’t,” Prompto says again. “I don't know how to drive.”

Ignis stares. Gladio takes off his sunglasses and stares, too. Even Noct pauses by the gas pump, nozzle still poised in his hand, and looks at him.

“Well,” Ignis says with a sigh, “We're going to have to change that, aren't we?”

-⚔-

Ignis shows him the basics that afternoon: gas pedal, brake pedal, turn signal, mirrors. It takes the better part of an hour of starting and stopping in the parking lot, but he eventually gets the hang of it. So far, so good. It’s a nice feeling, sitting in the driver’s seat. Prompto gets why Ignis likes driving so much.

“Are you ready to get on the road?” Ignis asks when Prompto has successfully done a few laps without slamming on the brakes. 

“Please say yes,” Noct groans from the back seat. “We’ve been here forever.”

“Yeah—we’re losing daylight,” Gladio agrees.

“You guys didn’t have to stay in the car this whole time, you know,” Prompto says over his shoulder. “You guys could have checked out the diner, or the store, or—”

“But if we left, who’d be around to tease you when you mess up?” Gladio interrupts, jostling Prompto’s shoulder. In the passenger seat, Ignis rolls his eyes.

“Pull onto the road please, Prompto,” says Ignis, “before these children drive us mad.”

Prompto grins. “You got it, Iggy.”

And then Prompto carefully, carefully steers the Regalia onto the open road.

An hour later, he finally gets confident enough to get up to the speed limit. He’s feeling pretty good. With the top down, the wind blows through his hair and the sun hanging overhead doesn’t feel quite so hot. The Regalia is one hell of a stylish vehicle, and driving her makes him feel like royalty. 

That is, until a dualhorn steps out into the middle of the road.

Everything happens way too fast. The beast is less than a hundred feet away and getting closer as the Regalia hurtles towards it. Both Ignis and Gladio are shouting at him.

“Stop the car!” Ignis yells.

Gladio bellows even louder. “Pull over!” 

“Brake!”

“Turn the fucking wheel!”

Prompto, in his panic, does neither of these things—or rather, he tries to do both and fails. The dualhorn isn’t moving, and hitting it would total the car. He needs to slow down. Hit the brakes, hit the brakes hit the brakes—how the hell does he do that again? He inadvertently presses on the gas harder, and the car lurches forward. Oh fuck. Oh  _ fuck _ . He needs to get off the road. He yanks the wheel left, then right, then left again as he finally remembers what the brake pedal is—but he’s not stopping fast enough. Oh gods, the dualhorn is so fucking close. He grabs the transmission and yanks it into ‘Park’. 

This, perhaps, is his biggest mistake.

The engine  _ screams _ —a loud, shrill sound that an engine should definitely never, ever make. The Regalia fishtails, the back wheels sliding right as the car spins off the road. The car jolts, the tires leaving the pavement and rocks scratching the Regalia’s underbelly. Dust billows up around them as the Regalia slides off-road completely. The engine makes one last horrible screech—and then the car stops and goes silent. 

The dust settles. The air smells like smoke and burnt rubber. Slowly, Prompto loosens his grip on the wheel, stretching his fingers gingerly.

The dualhorn is a few feet in front of them. It stares at them, lets out a low huff, and slowly wanders off the road to munch on a patch of nearby grass.

“Well,” Ignis says after a long, long moment, “this car won’t push itself to the Hammerhead.”

-⚔-

Several months go by before he’s allowed to practice driving again. After what happened, the others are understandably pretty wary about letting him drive, but that’s not the only reason it takes so long. Life gets complicated. A lot of things change in those few months—a war starts, Noct’s dad is killed, and the four of them become wanted fugitives from the Empire of Niflheim. Prompto doesn’t exactly blame his friends for forgetting about his driving lessons. By the time Ignis brings them up again, Prompto has almost forgotten about them himself.

“Say, Prompto,” Ignis says one night as they pull up beside a campsite just a few feet off the road. The night air is hot and muggy, and the sound of cicadas rings from the grass around the small rocky platform. 

Prompto has already hopped out of the Regalia, but he pauses as he crosses the road, turning back to watch as Ignis pulls the parking brake and turns off the car's headlights. “What's up, Iggy?” he asks. 

“Care to join me tomorrow morning?”

“You need help with breakfast?”

“That's not quite what I had in mind,” Ignis says. “I was wondering if you'd like to continue your driving lessons.”

“Oh.” It feels like a lifetime since he wrecked the car. So much has happened since then. “Um. I guess so? Sure?”

“Good.” Ignis opens the car door and steps out onto the pavement. “We’ll meet at the Regalia bright and early, then.”

Gladio is just summoning their tent out of the armiger when Prompto joins him up on the flat stone campsite. 

“What did Iggy want?” Gladio asks.

Prompto rubs the back of his neck. “Uh. He wants to start my driving lessons again.”

On the other side of the campsite, Noct briefly looks up from where he's organizing his tackle box. Gladio frowns deeply, then says, “Don't you dare wreck the car again.”

“Don't worry,” Prompto replies with a nervous laugh. “I wasn't planning on it.”

He can't wreck the car—Ignis wouldn't let him. 

At least he hopes not.

-⚔-

At dawn the next day, he manages to drag himself out of his sleeping bag before Gladio and Noct are awake. The air is clearer in the morning, less humid. The sun streaks the grass with rosy light, and birdsong floats across the fields. If Prompto weren't so tired and nervous, he might actually enjoy the sunrise right now.

Ignis is waiting for him by the Regalia, leaning against the passenger door as he flips idly through a book. He closes the book with a snap when Prompto approaches. “Good morning, Prompto,” he says. “Shall we begin?”

“I’m ready as I’ll ever be,” Prompto says, which is true, even though he feels nervous enough right now that he’s slightly nauseous. Or, maybe that’s just what it feels like to wake up early? 

Or, perhaps it’s a little bit of both, he thinks, tracing the Regalia’s pristine black finish with his eyes as Ignis waits for him to get into the driver’s seat. Would Gladio actually kill him if he ruins the Regalia again? He wouldn’t, right?

“Dawn won’t last forever, you know,” Ignis says. “The road will start getting busier if you wait too long.”

“Okay, okay. “Prompto gingerly opens the car door and lowers himself inside, doing his best to get comfortable on the leather driver’s seat. “I’m in the car, see?”

“Good. Now, do you remember the basic controls?” 

“I think so.”

“You think so?”

“Well, yeah, I mean—I mean I do remember them.”

“Show me.”

Prompto walks through everything he remembers—the gas pedal, the brake, the transmission, the turn signal. Ignis nods approvingly after each one. The only things Ignis has to remind him of are the paddle shifters, which, Ignis assures him, aren’t something he needs to worry about right now. 

“Perhaps if we get in a high-speed car chase, you’ll use them,” Ignis says, “but for the open road, they’re hardly necessary.”

“Right.”

“Good. Adjust the mirror, please.”

Prompto does. He doesn’t need to adjust them much, though; Ignis isn’t much taller than him. Ignis takes his time inspecting his handiwork before nodding his approval.

“Everything seems in order,” he says. “Shall we try driving for a few kilometers?”

Prompto gulps. “A few kilometers?” 

“Should take only a few minutes.”

“Sure, sure.” Prompto shifts in his seat and readjusts his grip on the wheel. “No problem.”

The Regalia roars to life when he turns the key, nearly startling him out of any small amount of confidence he’d managed to muster. He wipes his sweaty palm on his pants, then takes the gear selector and shifts the Regalia into ‘Drive”. Very, very slowly, he takes his foot off the brake. The Regalia inches forward.

“You can go a little faster, you know. The Regalia won’t break.”

Prompto lets out a high little laugh. “You say that now...”

“You’ll be fine. We won’t run into any dualhorns this early in the morning,” Ignis says. “They don’t typically begin grazing until well after sunrise.”

While that does ease Prompto’s mind a little, he knows dualhorns aren’t the only danger he might find on the road. He worries his lip and glances at Ignis.

“You’ll be fine,” Ignis says again. “I promise.”

Oh, wow. A promise from Ignis. That, Prompto knows, is worth something. He rolls his shoulders back and sits a little straighter in the seat. If Ignis thinks he can do this...maybe he isn’t such a lost cause after all.

They return to the campsite an hour later, having driven a good four or five miles around the area. While Prompto was still driving well below the speed limit, he did manage to relax enough to begin enjoying himself about halfway through their session. Driving the Regalia really did feel great.

When Prompto parks the car next to the campsite, Gladio has already packed the tent and is standing on the side of the road, tapping his foot. Noct is sitting on the ground next to him, yawning. 

“Took you long enough,” Gladio says.

“Good driving skills take time to develop properly,” Ignis replies. “We don’t want any more accidents, do we?”

Noct ignores the conversation in favor of climbing into his usual seat in the back. He leans his head against the headrest and closes his eyes. 

“You heard our prince,” Ignis says with a small grin. “Prompto, I believe your lesson is finished for the day. I'll take the driver's seat back. It’s time to get moving.”

-⚔-

Though Ignis is by far the best teacher, Noct and Gladio also take turns giving Prompto lessons. They go about as well as one might expect.

Noct is a terrible driving instructor—or he is in the beginning, anyway. The first few times he gives Prompto lessons, he spends most of it sleeping in the passenger seat, leaving Prompto too nervous to do much more than drive slowly along back roads. When he isn’t sneaking in an illicit nap, he offers little feedback except, “Go faster” and “Loosen up.” The bad lessons don't last long, though. Ignis chews Noct out when he finds out about his teaching style, so all Noct’s lessons after the first one are at least slightly better. 

Noct is a quiet instructor, but Prompto can talk enough for both of them. Now that Noct doesn't spend the whole time sleeping, their sessions together are filled with whatever idle chatter Prompto has on his mind that day with a healthy background of road noise and quiet music from the car stereo. He likes Noct’s company, quiet though it is, and every kilometer on the road is another small boost in his confidence behind the wheel. It’s nice. They don’t spend a ton of time together anymore, just the two of them, and Prompto misses it.

“Hey, Noct,” Prompto says during an evening session on the highway by Longwythe Peak. The sun hangs low over the plains, warming his skin as the wind tousles his hair. “You know what I miss most about being in Insomnia?”

Noct lifts his head from where he was resting it in his hand and looks at him. “You mean aside from being tracked by Imperials everywhere we go?”

“Well, yeah. Aside from that.”

“Okay.” Noct stares at him expectantly. “What is it?”

“I miss doing nothing.” He sighs, glancing over at Noct just long enough to give him a wan smile. “I feel like we’re always doing something now, you know? We’re on a hunt, or in a dungeon, or we’re setting up camp, or taking down camp, or helping Sania find some frogs...” He bites his lip. “How long has it been since we just spent a day hanging out, you know?”

“Way too long.” Noct leans further back in his seat and stretches his arms over his head. “But you know Gladio and Ignis would never let us blow off a whole day. They're too uptight.”

Prompto laughs. “If only you made the rules.”

“Hey, I only boss you around when it's something important.”

Prompto raises an eyebrow. “Like making everyone hang around a swamp for four hours so you can catch a fish?”

“Yep.”

“Good to know that all that princely power isn't going to your head.”

Noct shrugs. “If it had, I probably wouldn't have to teach you to drive.” 

“Ouch! That's cold, dude.”

“Hey. You're the one who started this,” Noct says. Prompto thinks he might be grinning, but it's hard to tell for sure without taking his eyes off the road.

“I guess getting behind the wheel makes it hard not to channel a little bit of Ignis, you know?” Prompto straightens a little and puts on his best impression of Ignis’s accent. “That’s it! I’ve come up with a  _ neew recipeh!”  _

Noct bursts out laughing so hard he doubles over in his seat. Prompto starts laughing too, which is probably not such a good thing since he’s supposed to be focusing on driving. It takes a couple minutes before they can stop giggling long enough to continue the conversation.

“You should show your Ignis impression to Gladio sometime,” Noct says, still trying to catch his breath. “He’d get a kick out of it. Just don’t you dare start making any puns—” Noct cuts himself off, but it’s too late. He’s already planted the idea.

“And what would you do about it if I did?” Prompto says, unable to keep himself from grinning. “What  _ pun- _ ishment would fit the crime?”

Noct buries his face in his hands. “Fuck.”

“What’s with that reaction? Did you not get the  _ pun _ chline?”

“Ugh...”

“Pretty sure you just don’t  _ pun- _ derstand my humor.”

“Okay, lesson over,” Noct says. “It’s getting dark. We need to head back.”

“Good thinking,” Prompto says. He puts on Ignis’s accent again and adds, “The roads are perilous at night.”

They both start laughing again. This time, they can’t stop until they get back to the hotel.

-⚔-

Gladio’s lessons are the polar opposites of Noct’s. Where Noct’s style is a bit more hands-off than it maybe should be, Gladio’s approach is about as overbearing as it can get. He spends half the time yelling, and the other half micromanaging—sometimes both. Where Noct tells him to speed up, Gladio is constantly telling him to, quote, “Slow the fuck down!” Gladio is always getting on Prompto’s ass about his following distance, even though Prompto knows that he’s following the two-second rule just fine. Hell, he’s following the  _ three _ -second rule, making sure that he’s always at least three seconds behind the car in front of him. But that’s not enough for Mr. Safety First.

It takes a couple lessons of tense, terrified driving before Prompto realizes that Gladio only acts like a hard-ass because he’s just as nervous as Prompto is. He begins to take note of the way Gladio grips the seat at every turn and clenches his teeth every time Prompto goes more than thirty kilometers per hour. It’s a little insulting, that Gladio has so little faith in his driving ability. Then again, the first time Prompto was behind the wheel he almost totaled the car. 

Hm. Well, okay. Maybe his fear isn’t quite so unjustified.

After a few sessions of Gladio alternating between sounding like he’s going to kill Prompto and sounding like he’s expecting to die, Prompto decides that unless something changes, they’re both going to lose their goddamn minds. The next time they’re on an empty road, Prompto pulls carefully over to the side and puts the car in ‘Park’.

“What are you doing?” Gladio demands. “I didn’t tell you to—”

“I gotta level with you, man,” Prompto interrupts. “I know you’re coming from a good place, but your backseat driving is making this really difficult for both of us.”

_ “ Backseat driving?” _ Gladio twists in the seat, fixing Prompto with a frankly terrifying glare. Prompto reevaluates the wisdom of his decision to confront Gladio about this. “I’m trying to teach you how to fucking drive! Of course, I’m critiquing.”

“Yeah, yes, uh. I know. Um.” Prompto swallows. “I just—maybe you could tone down the yelling? A bit?” His voice pitches up a little at the end, but honestly, he’s just proud of himself for getting this far. He very pointedly avoids looking up into what can only be Gladio’s death glare and instead focuses on keeping his nerve. “When you’re yelling, dude, I have a really hard time not freezing up.”

Gladio doesn’t reply—not right away. At first, Prompto thinks that Gladio has officially reached kill mode and is simply too furious to reply. When he chances a very fervent glance up to the passenger seat, however, he finds Gladio’s expression contemplative rather than livid. 

“Okay,” Gladio says eventually. Prompto blinks. “I’ll try not to yell as much when you’re driving.”

“Oh.” Prompto honestly expected to have to fight him more about this. “Well. Okay. Thanks, buddy.”

“But,” Gladio says, and Prompto braces for the catch. “You need to stay focused. Don’t spend the entire lesson talking about random shit if it isn’t related to driving.”

Prompto frowns. He’s never shut up in his life, but then again, he’s not sure the whole “not yelling” thing comes naturally to Gladio, either. They’re both making compromises here. “I’ll try,” he says diplomatically. Gladio eyes him for a moment, so Prompto adds, “Really. I will. I promise.”

That seems to be enough for Gladio. He nods, shifting so he’s facing forward in the seat again, and lets out a small sigh. “Okay,” he says. “Now... get back onto the road.”

Prompto grins. “You got it.”

“And don’t—”

“Don’t forget to use the turn signal. Don’t worry. I won’t.”

And he doesn’t. He shifts into “Drive”, flicks on the left turn signal, checks his blind spots, and pulls off the shoulder.

“Good job,” Gladio says. The praise makes Prompto preen a little despite himself.

The whole no-yelling-no-rambling thing is hard for both of them, but ultimately it does result in some much more effective driving lessons. Their little chat was a success. Maybe Prompto should air his grievances more often.

-⚔-

After a couple months of lessons, Ignis decides it’s time for Prompto to take his “driving test”.

“This is dumb,” Prompto complains. “We’re not in Insomnia. I can’t get a driver’s license outside the city, and this isn’t even a real test!”

“Actually,” Ignis says. “I happen to be a registered driving test proctor.”

“Yeah,” Noct agrees. “He proctored my driving test.”

“Indeed,” Ignis says. “When everything has been settled with the Empire of Niflheim and we can return to Insomnia, I can go right over to the DMV and submit my recommendation for licensure—provided you pass, of course.”

Prompto groans. This cannot be happening.

“Okay, okay,” he finally relents. “I’ll take a driver’s test, But I really don’t understand why Noct and Gladio have to come along for it.”

“Oh, but they are absolutely vital to my proctoring process,” Ignis says placidly. “Noct and Gladio are my assistant proctors. They are here to catch anything I happen to miss.”

“As if you’d miss anything,” Prompto mumbles, but he can see this isn’t an argument he’s going to win. 

The test starts with a few basic turns and stops on some of the smaller roads around the outpost they stayed at the night before. Prompto very diligently uses his turn signals and checks his blind spots, even though there isn’t another car in sight. Everything goes pretty smoothly until Ignis asks him to parallel park next to a fence. He definitely ends up more than an arm’s length away, which is probably going to earn him a couple deductions, but at least he doesn’t hit anything.

He ends the test feeling pretty good about his performance. Aside from the parallel parking, there were no major hang-ups, unless he forgot to check his mirrors when switching lanes or something. When he pulls into the parking lot back at the outpost, however, Ignis is silent.

“So, uh, Ignis...” Prompto says. “How’d I do? Did I... Did I pass?”

“Hm...” Ignis says. He looks over his notes, his eyes moving slowly down the page. Wow, there’s an awful lot of notes. Prompto couldn’t have done  _ that  _ bad, could he? He swallows nervously and tries to subtly wipe his sweaty palms on his jeans.

“Well,” Ignis says at last. “I’ve tallied up all your points.”

“And?” Prompto leans forward. Noct and Gladio do too.

“Congratulations,” Ignis says, a small quirk to his lips. “You’ve passed.”

Prompto whoops. Noct pats his shoulder, and Gladio ruffles his hair. Surrounded by all of them in this car they’ve made their home, Prompto is struck by how truly lucky he is to have these people in his life. God, he loves his friends. He loves them so much. There’s really nowhere else he’d rather be.

“Hey, Prompto,” Noct says. “What d’you say we head over to Wiz Chocobo Post to celebrate?”

Scratch that. Maybe there’s one place he’d rather be.

“Hell yeah! I’ll drive!” Prompto exclaims. He releases the parking brake, puts the car in gear, and heads back out onto the open road. There’s some partying to be done.

**Author's Note:**

> i hope gladio didn't come across as mean, he's honestly my favorite character so like,,,, i love him. no disrespect intended.
> 
> thank you for reading! :) comments and kudos are always appreciated. <3


End file.
